GDC and DICE join E3's lead and announce future events as invite-only

Non-industry gamers, I'm about to ruin your day, but please don't hold it against me as I'm only doing my job. The news has surfaced that both GDC and DICE are going to go forward with an invite-only system next year to attempt to weed out unnecessary attendees. GDC show director Jamil Moledin commented on the details:

"We don't have it nailed down, but we are looking at moving to an invite model for press access at GDC," he said. "It's meant to be a networking event for people who make games, but more and more we are seeing a lot of individuals who are obtaining press credentials who aren't full-time press. It's kind of open to being spoofed, in a way."

So if you don't have what it takes to run a full-time game site and have to supplement your passion with a day job, you've pretty much just had your head shat upon, right? Even as a full-time writer this news rattles me, as I worked a day job for a long time and wrote like a demon at night to push towards the goals I dreamed of. I see the objective reasons why this choice would be made, but I can't help but feel that it weeds out the genuinely motivated underdogs along with the slackers.

On the other hand, there's always PAX, an open-to-the-public gamer event that has won the hearts of many of E3's old fans (and which many attendees claim to like more than the other events.) I personally considered events like GDC and E3 work, while PAX seemed more an enthusiast event to have fun at. What's your take -- fair choice, or unfair?